There were so many ppl (including myself) asking how to make that mysterious sidechain compression. So here are some tutorials i made or found in internet.

But first some info about sidechaining...

Pimp my bassline....

SIDECHAININGis a very powerfull technic to improve the dynamics of a track. its nothing else as a inversed GATE, which means that some element drops away when another is being played. You can use sidechaining for very different results, but the most famous one is sidechaining the bass with the kick, means the bass will go off, when the bassdrum hits. The results are very organic and warm in my opinion, reading this tutorial will help you to understand SC and to transform this knowlegde into other applications. (Mantik)

Now lets see how to make this effect with different ways and programs.

3. Insert this VST on bass line and turn recv On. Now tweak it as you like.

FruityLoops sidechain compression (Tutorial by Daniel85)

1. Choose an instrument you want to use as sidechain "trigger" (the sound giving the compressor the command to jump in) a 4/4 kick for example and link it to an FX-channel. First of all you have to mute this FX -channel (do this by pulling down the volume fader, in the mixer, all the way).

2. Next you have to add a "fruity peak controller" to it... that's all you have to do to set up the "trigger".

3. Then link the sound you want to be sidechained to another FX- Channel and add the "fruity compressor (or any other compressor of your choice) to it, right click the "threshold" knob and select "Link to controller".
4. After you've done this a window pops up giving you the ability to choose between which controller to use. Click on the internal controller window and select "Peak+Lfo" and click "accept"... now you're set
You can only apply one device per "peak controller"

1. Create a Audio-Stereo-Group called "Sidechain".
You see the plugin "Waves C1 Comp-sc" in the picture. Install this plugin in the Sidechain-Group.
Put the Output-Panning of this group into MONO (right click on the panner, select "stereocombined panner" and drag both stereochannels into the center)

2. Edit 2 kicks which play always at the same time. The picture shows the Midi-Notes of the duplicated kick. Just take your original kick (from your drumsampler for example), duplicate it and hit both Kicks always.

3. Root the 2 kicks into 2 different channels. Look at the picture. Rename one channel to "KICK" (the original one) and the other one you give the name "TRIGGER".

You can also see that KICK is routet to the masterchannel of the Soundcard. TRIGGER is routet to a Group called "Sidechain". This is important, do it!

Maybe you allready recognized that the channel TRIGGER is balanced hard to the left. Do it! You will see why.

Only one of our two kicks is sent to the listeners ear. The other generates an internal signal for the sidechaing group. The TRIGGER-kick sends a signal which triggers the envelope and the dynamics. See the next pictures how it works.

4. Locate your bassline-channel. In my example its an audiochannel called "Bass".

You just have to do 2 things: Send the Output to the Group "Sidechain"

And put the Panning to the hard right.

There are 2 Signals now routing into the Sidechaining-Stereo-Group. On the left channel is our TRIGGER-Kick and on the right channel is the "Bass".

5. Open The Sidechaingroup. edit the plugin WAVES C1 comp-SC.

Change the Key mode to L -> R, now the left input is the key for the right output. This means that the TRIGGER-kick which is sent on the left channel generates an envelope which manipulates a signal on the right channel (the "Bass"). We want to manipulate the bassline with the envelope of the TRIGGER-Kick.

Edit smart hard parameters for Treshold, Ratio, Attack and Release. You will see that the visualation-diagramm shows a movement. The Y-Axis shows the volume-signal on the light side and the X-Axis shows the volume-signal on the right side.

In this example (taken from a real production) all audiosignals from the right side (TRIGGER) above 34.9 dB (Threshold) will reduce the signal of the right side (Bass) with an Attack of 2.51 / Release: 244 / Ratio: 4.99:1

Make experiments with it and listen how the wave of the bassline drops away when the Kick hits. If you listen only the bassline on the right channel you forgot to set the Output of the Group into MONO. (see Step 1)

If you did all correctly.... enjoy! Make experiments, finetune the parameters.

Sidechain compression using Reason 3

1. First of all, create BASSLINE (in my case i used substractor) and make any melody you like.
2. Now right click on Substractor -> create -> Mclass compressor (we do this, to route automatically subtractor's audio out to compressor in)
3. Now create Redrum machine. And program 4x4 bassdrum. In rack view (press TAB) route SEND OUT 1 from redrum to the SIDECHAIN IN in the compressor. Now turn the S1 send amount on the bassdrum channel fully up

4. We are done! Just play with compressor now (see tutorial file for parameters) and see the results by bypassing on/off.

1. To get it started, make two MIDI clips and one AUDIO on different channels. MIDIs for Impulse (Drums) and Bass, and AUDIO channel is for Impulse Out (Because when sidechaining Impulse to compressor, it will get muted. So i route Impulse audio to another audio channel to hear my kick)

2. Now load any kick sample on impulse and program simple 4x4. Then make any melody for bass.

4. Now click ctrl+alt+i to see Audio/MIDI input and output options. Route Impulse audio to Bass. (you will see 3/4 Vanilla Compressor by then)

5. So we have routed our Impulse on Vanilla compressor, while its working on Bass channel. We should only tweak our compressor now...as always for sidechain effect, use short attack and release with pretty low threshold.

6. If you cant hear your Impulse. Then use that audio channel we have created. On that channel select "Audio from" and select your Impulse channel. And finally press orange "In" button.